


The Colour of Valour

by Severina



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Community: writerverse, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 19:31:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4233975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severina/pseuds/Severina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She knows what her father did to Mrs. Hamilton's body. She knows how the people of Charles Town degraded and debased that good woman's corpse. She knows everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Colour of Valour

**Author's Note:**

> Post Season Two. Written for LJ's writerverse community for the prompt "the colour of valour"
> 
> * * *

Abigail is warned to stay below deck. The men of the _Gilded Lion_ are good men, she is told, god-fearing men, but even good men can be tempted by the softness of a woman when they are far from their sainted wives. She presses her lips together to keep her opinion of this to herself but still intends to heed the warning – she has no desire to lose her virtue to a desperate merchant seaman. But within a few hours she hears that they are passing Charles Town and she finds herself abandoning her journal on her cot and making her way to the deck.

The once-bustling port is still in ruins. She views more than one sailor cross himself; hears more than one muttered invective on the monstrosity of James Flint and the malevolence of Captain Vane. One man spits and curses their names, and Abigail grips the rail and lifts her chin. 

Her guardians had tried to keep the worst of the atrocities from reaching her ears. But Abigail was quiet, creeping about the house like a mouse in the larder, and she heard the kitchen girls gossiping as they chopped vegetables; heard the stable boys sharing gruesome tales as they tended to the horses. She knows what her father did to Mrs. Hamilton's body. She knows how the people of Charles Town degraded and debased that good woman's corpse. She knows everything.

A grey pall hangs above the town, and to Abigail it is the colour of valour. The colour of honour. It is what comes of rightful vengeance. 

"Miss?"

The captain is a small man, weak but well-meaning. She cannot help but compare him to the men whose names now drip with scorn from the lips of his crew, and find him wanting. But he has been kind to her for the little time she has known him, even as he accepted thrice the usual fare to smuggle her aboard his ship, and she believes he truly does want to keep her safe.

"Best be gettin' back to your cabin, miss," he says.

His eyes dart nervously to one of the men, and her appraisal of the captain plummets another notch. She and Mrs. Hamilton had travelled from Nassau to Charles Town without a worry, sure of their safety under Captain Flint's watchful eye. She had felt more secure among pirates than she did with the crew of a merchant vessel. The knowledge reinforces her faith in her decision to return. 

And she now knows that she would be best to keep her cabin door locked until they dock in Port Royal.

Abigail nods, straightens her spine and turns her back on the town. Good riddance to it, she thinks. She has a new life ahead.


End file.
